Re: Our first IEP today

[Guest guest]

Is their a Headstart in your area? When Mav was 3 his only choices were a

preschool with only sp needs children or me driving him to school for one on

one speech 3 times a week. We insisted that they put him in the Headstart

program. That in itself was a fight, but Headstart is supposed to have a 5%

population of sp needs. They were insisting that ADD was their sp needs.

Anyway,

we fought it and got it. He went to Headstart and the school district

provided an aide and speech and PT at the Headstart.

Otherwise, are there any private preschools in your area that you can place

him in? Again, you can have the school district providing the services that he

needs there and he can be with typical peers.

If he is speech delayed and not in the program that is " speech centered " ,

then they really shouldn't be able to refuse speech.

Good luck and do NOT give up! YOU know what is best for your son, not them.

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     As for me and my house,

      we will serve the Lord.

             24:15

[Guest guest]

In a message dated 3/11/2004 3:06:02 PM Pacific Standard Time,

dbonorato4@... writes:

Speech is one of the most important services and most (not all but most) of

our kids need it. Hang in there.

Thank you Elaine. My husband and I are not going to budge. I feel like I

have dug my fox hole and I'm settled in for the fight. I did call our

pediatrician and they are getting an authorization from our insurance for speech

therapy. So the Lord willing will get speech this way for the time

being.

We are viewing the school they offered on Monday. There are zero typical

children in any of their pre-K classes and that bothers me. We also have an

appointment to view a private preschool on Wednesday. If we have to pay this

ourselves and it is better for then we will. I will keep you posted.

Regional Center doesn't have an appointment with their attoney until April 14th!

So

we are in a holding pattern there.

[Guest guest]

I'm sorry that it didn't go well. Been there, got the t-shirt. You did the

right thing IMHO. If you're not happy with the program, you should take the

next step. Speech is one of the most important services and most (not all but

most) of our kids need it. Hang in there.

Elaine

Our first IEP today

It didn't go as well as we had hoped. We had good back up with us. My

husband and I were there, as 's speech therapist, and the director of

his 18

month to age 3 school, and our regional center counselor. They say they can't

offer any preschool that have both typical and children with disabilities.

We didn't like that so they said they could put him in a class with all high

functioning children with disabilities. Then they go on to tell us that

won't be getting speech as the program they are offering is very language

based. is just now starting to use some words and is blossoming now

that

he is currently receiving one on one speech. We refused to sign the IEP, we

want to see the school, and we requested mediation regarding the speech.

is doing well in most areas but speech and that was the one thing we are

pushing for. Any insights or advice?

mom to Noelle 16, 13, almost 3 DS, and almost 2

[Guest guest]

Since you refer to Regional Center, I assume you are in CA? What part?

We are in the San Diego area, so if you are down this way, maybe we can

give you advice that worked from here ( is in kindergarten this

year, so we are pretty familiar with the 3 year old transition from

Early Intervention services).

The short story here is, that our district believes that they do not

have to offer any preschool programs with typical kids because they

don't offer school to all 3 and 4 year olds. Nor do they believe they

have to pay for a private program so that a child can be included,

because they don't " include " any 3-4 year old..... just provide special

ed services. We argued over this for quite some time. They also know

(I'm sure) that it's such a short time period that to try and get them

to provide an inclusive program, they could tie things up until your

child was ready for kindergarten :-) It's a poorly written part of IDEA

(IMHO), but unles they offer classes for typical kids, it is difficult

to force them to offer inclusive programs. We were offered Special Day

(mix of different disabilities with one " typical " peer model, which I

consider as no typical kids because 1 in a class of 10-12 isn't a

significant number), Intensive Language (which would have been great for

speech, but they would not work on other goals.... we would have had to

do OT, APE, educational goals separately), or itinerant services (which

would be whatever service we agreeded upon, I would take her to a school

to receive these services when the therapist was there...... lots of

driving her around, and no interaction with typical peers).

We ended up sending to Special Day part time to receive the

services she needed (and they didn't fight about any services given

during special day classes..... she had speech 2x per week, OT 1x per

week, and APE 2x per week, plus instruction for her pre-academic goals

and regular preschool classroom stuff, and a staff willing to work on

potty training). She also attended private preschool in the afternoons,

and we didn't work on any specific goals there except for working on

behaving and socializng with typical children. I also felt this was

really important for speech. I figured that if didn't have

DS, we would still have paid for her to attend preschool (as we did with

her sisters), and I just didn't think that the time we would waste

fighting our district would be in her best interest.

Now that we are in kindergarten though, and she will be in the same

school for 6 years and it is clear what typical kids do, it's much

easier to make sure that gets the services she needs, in an

environment with typical children. Good luck..... it's very difficult

to get an inclusive preschool environment going through the school

district, unless you can find a Headstart program that you like, AND

they have a spot available for kids with IEPs (that are not filled up

with " easy " IEPs) I can say, I'm glad we did both programs because

was really ready for kindergarten, and is doing really well.

, mom to (8), (6DS), and (4)

FROG70x7@... wrote:

>In a message dated 3/11/2004 3:06:02 PM Pacific Standard Time,

>dbonorato4@... writes:

>Speech is one of the most important services and most (not all but most) of

>our kids need it. Hang in there.

>Thank you Elaine. My husband and I are not going to budge. I feel like I

>have dug my fox hole and I'm settled in for the fight. I did call our

>pediatrician and they are getting an authorization from our insurance for

speech

>therapy. So the Lord willing will get speech this way for the time

being.

>We are viewing the school they offered on Monday. There are zero typical

>children in any of their pre-K classes and that bothers me. We also have an

>appointment to view a private preschool on Wednesday. If we have to pay this

>ourselves and it is better for then we will. I will keep you posted.

>Regional Center doesn't have an appointment with their attoney until April

14th! So

>we are in a holding pattern there.

>

>

>

>

>

[Guest guest]

In a message dated 3/11/2004 5:03:25 PM Pacific Standard Time,

leslie-kerrigan@... writes:

Since you refer to Regional Center, I assume you are in CA? What part?

We are in Long Beach. Thank you so much for your words of advice and we are

going to look at both the Special Day class and private. I'll keep you all

posted.